Saudi comedian mocks ISIS in popular TV show

Friday 17/07/2015

Saudi comedian Nasser al-Qasabi, centre, in a scene from his recent TV show titled Selfie.

Dubai - A new TV satire programme has become a hit in the Arab world by mocking some of the region’s most serious issues, from the intractable Sunni-Shia divide and religious extremism to the brutality of the Islamic State (ISIS).
The show, Selfie, has also drawn a backlash. ISIS sympathisers have made death threats against its Saudi star and top writer. One mainstream Saudi cleric denounced the show for heresy for mocking the country’s ultraconservative religious estab­lishment. That has made it the buzz of the Muslim holy month of Rama­dan, which is peak television view­ing season in the Middle East.
Nasser al-Qasabi, the series’ star, and its writer, Khalaf al-Harbi, told the Associated Press (AP) in their first interview with foreign media that they expected the backlash but were not prepared for the populari­ty. It is one of the top shows on MBC, the privately owned Saudi network that airs it, and has been the talk of Gulf media.
Al-Qasabi says the series’ dark humour reveals just how tragic the situation across the Middle East has become.
“What’s coming is darker,” he said. “Maybe I am a bit pessimistic, and I hope that I am wrong, but I don’t think I am.”
In one of the show’s episodes, al- Qasabi plays a would-be caliph start­ing his own ISIS-style militia but he is surrounded by buffoons and hypocrites. His mufti, or top cleric, never finished school. He strug­gles to find ways to differentiate his group — his group’s flag is the same as ISIS’s notorious banner but with the black and white colours flipped. When one of his cronies boasts of plans for a mass beheading, the ca­liph complains that he wants a new form of execution.
“Behead, behead, behead. That’s all you got?” he groans, before sug­gesting the captives be put in a freezer. It is particularly bitter hu­mour given the increasingly grisly ways ISIS has killed captives.
In the show’s most popular skit, al-Qasabi plays a Saudi father whose son has run off to join ISIS. He smug­gles himself into Syria, pretends to be a jihadi joining ISIS and tries to convince his son to return home. It is a more serious episode, showing his horror at ISIS’s “perversions” of Islam and at the group’s atrocities — and his torment as he tries to avoid committing atrocities himself in his disguise.
It has comic moments as well as he fumbles his way through militant training and is chased around the bed by a militant bride who is forced on him by the group and who has dedicated her life to pleasing jihadis as a means of going to heaven.
Other, lower-budget Iraqi and Syr­ian TV shows have mocked ISIS and other militants but Selfie stands out with its high production values — and the fact that it is a show with Saudi actors on a Saudi network at times mocking attitudes to religion in the kingdom, where there is little tolerance for discussing the many taboos.
In one episode, two Saudi men meet at an airport in Europe and bond over their love of women, alco­hol and hard partying. But, though neither is religious, their budding friendship takes a nosedive when they discover that one is Sunni and the other Shia. They argue until air­port security detains them. When police discover they are fighting over a split that happened 1,400 years ago, they send the two to a mental hospital.
Another skit lampooned Saudi Arabia’s powerful ultraconserva­tive religious establishment and its stance against music. That was the show that prompted cleric Saeed bin Mohammed bin Farwa to accuse al- Qasabi and MBC of heresy.
Columnist Hamad al-Majid criti­cised the show in the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, saying that in its attempt to ridicule ex­tremism the series also disrespected Islamic traditions and made gener­alisations, especially about Saudi Arabia. Al-Qasabi said he views his acting career as his own form of ji­had, which in Islam literally means any struggle in the path to God.
“Offering something positive that raises awareness of issues, I see this as jihad,” he said. “Jihad is that you raise your children well. Jihad is that you work and are on a path to doing things well. Jihad is that you are good at your work… Life is one great jihad.”
Al-Qasabi and al-Harbi are no strangers to controversy. They both worked on Tash ma Tash (No Big Deal), a long-running comedy that ruffled feathers for its handling of sensitive issues in Saudi society.
Al-Harbi said he wanted to kick it up a notch with Selfie. He explained the title, saying the show is trying to give a snapshot of Arab society.
Selfie’s biggest success, said al- Harbi, is in exposing how extremist groups manipulate religion. He said the show delivered that message to the Arab public more effectively than lectures or government-con­trolled newspapers.
“I felt this is a weapon that will reach the audience,” he said. “If it was just something comical, we would have focused on easy societal issues that aren’t dangerous and are guaranteed safe.”